Monday, August 29, 2011

Hectic planning in progress for the trip to Wahiba Sands on 31st August and the reason for this haste is that each one of the team members are desperately looking out for booze bottles. Being last day of the holy month there are hardly any stocks around since the entire month the permit shop was closed and most of the black marketers have also depleted their supplies. Bookings at Al Raha desert camp has been done for 6-8 persons @ RO 20 per head which includes room, night dinner and morning breakfast. We have also booked two 4x4 vehicles for the ride into the desert from the Shell Petrol bunk at Bidhya…dune bashing and sunset from top of the dune.

Ramlat al wahiba or Sharqiya sand is the desert region of Oman has a boundary of 180 kms north to south and 80 kms east to west and is named after the Wahiba tribe who are the inhabitants of this region. This lies between Muscat and Sur while traveling through the Ibra route and has vast beautiful dunes and is one of the tourist spots of Oman. A number of hotels and camp dot the region each one offering various facilities and are priced according to the facilities.

Myth and mystery surrounds this region and as the legend says the Persian Shahryar incensed by the infidelity of his wife vowed to take a new wife each night and kill her the next morning. Shahrazad who consented to be his queen was beautiful and as well clever spent every night telling him legendary stories and would leave the climax of the story untold at dawn and thereby the king used to postpone her execution so that he could hear the complete story . 1001 nights she used to narrate thrilling stories and in the end she gave birth to three sons and the king was convinced by his wife faithfulness revoked his decree. Thus the legend of One thousand one nights.

On 1st morning after driving around in quad bikes we plan to go to Wadi Bani Khalid and swim in the natural soft water lake and then back to Muscat. Would write in detail once we are back

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Gone are the days when work means that we had to work from 9 AM to 5.30 PM with a half hour lunch break. I still remember the early days of my career way back 1979-1980, when I used to take some files to be cleared by my immediate boss at about 5 PM ,he used to ask me a question that could the file wait till next day morning and if I answer affirmative then he used to ask to just relax and have a smoke. He always used to say that while you work the whole day in full concentration you do need to relax every now and then so that you do not burn out. This was a very important Lesson learnt for me and this has helped me being more relaxed in my job throughout my career. I have seen friends being prey to stress and tensions as they are not able to relax a bit during work nor at their homes where they are still thinking about the office works.

Things have changed from those days and the present day culture is that a person who is office much beyond office hours are considered to be hard working employees. I have gleaned another lesson from this attitude while I was employed in Middle East in mid 1980’s we used to have an colleague who used to sit late till about 8-8.30 PM while the office used to close officially at 6 PM. This was noticed by our managing director for a week while staying in the guest room within the office complex during his visit from India and the next day in front of all employees stated the following quote “ If somebody is working late each day to complete his work then there are only two possibilities… one is that he is overloaded and the second that he is inefficient and then looking at that person who sat late he said I do not think I have overloaded you”… This made me realize that if you consciously do your share of work during the office time then you would not have to take the burden much beyond office timing thereby giving you sufficient time for relaxation and time to spend with your loved ones.

In this rat race of present time most of us are so busy to attain recognition and fame that we start neglecting ourselves and our families as we are getting obsessed with materialist gains that would come with the success. This generally leads to stress related health issues and frictions within the families. Well in my case we did take a conscious decision to be apart during my employment in Middle East for varied reasons such as children’s education and also more moola !!!! I have seen families tearing apart even though they stay together since the work pressures are pretty high demanding more time of an employee’s thereby he is unable to spend more quality time with his wife or kids. Initially all seems to be goody goody but then cracks start developing slowly and when you hardly expecting, it blows out. I know life is uncompromising in this matter and we need to take steps that everyone is satisfied i.e. employer, wife and kids…and in some cases even your parents. Work life balance needs to be maintained somehow and a person who is able to do that would be a happy and a successful person !!!

You all must be wondering why is that I have written about office and timings…. Well just couple of days back I received a mail from a friend which I have reproduced below

In this life, What did you miss???

The wife asked the husband when she was 25

Despondently the husband replied

I missed a new job opportunity

When she was 35

The husband angrily told her that

He had just missed the bus

At 45, the husband sadly said

I missed the opportunity seeing my close relative before his death

At 55, The husband said disappointingly

I missed a good chance to retire

At 65, The husband hurriedly replied

I missed a dental appointment

At 75, the wife did not ask the husband anymore

The husband was kneeling in front of a very sick wife remembering the question wife used to ask him and this time he asked the wife the same question

The wife with a smile and peaceful look replied

In this life, I did not miss having you

The husband was in tears and he thought they would be together forever. He was busy with work and trifles so much that he had never been thoughtful to his wife. The husband hugged his wife and said

Over 50 years, how I have allowed myself to miss your deep love for me,

In this busy life there are many people who are always busy with their works and these people revolve their lives around their job. These people all their times and health to meet the social expectations. They are unwilling to spend time on health care. They miss the opportunity to be with their children in their growing up . They neglect the loved ones who care for them and their health. Nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow, Life is not permanent so always live in present !!. Express your gratitude to your loved ones in words, Show your care in actions, Treat each day as the last episode of life.

In this way when you are gone your loved ones would have nothing to feel sorry about.

Wow quite a powerful mail this was !!!! So friends have a happy and love filled life and yes you really need to make few adjustments in all facets of life to achieve contentment and happiness !!!

About Me

A widely traveled, an engineer by profession and reaching the milestone of becoming a senior citizen, living each day of life as it comes. Life is short so enjoy while it lasts. Love wildlife adventures and visiting new places